The French were not prepared, the Europeans were not prepared. And, most of all, we were not prepared as 27 Brits slipped across the channel to descend upon Saint Laurent Blangy for the first Wildwater ECA cup race of 2024. The British armada consisted of 2 fully laden mini-buses and trailers, with an assorted entourage of cars heralding from as far as Scotland. Between them they carried K1s, C1s and the UK’s entire fleet of C2s.
The whitewater course at Saint Laurent Blangy is not massive, (it’s a similar size and shape to Cardington for UK paddlers), but the water was still powerful. It constantly pushes left and right making it hard to carry speed and a straight line.
Fortunately while we were only there for the weekend most of Saturday was dedicated to practice and, after the obligatory morning boat faff, the team got down to learning the course. For many in the team this was their first international event, and their first time trying to get to grips with a course with such little practice.
Luckily the course boasted a conveyor belt, which made it easy to run laps, and laps, and laps and laps. It did however lead to a little bit of carnage as the C1s discovered that their skegs made departing the conveyor a bit more difficult and often a tad more upside down than desired. Other than this though there were no major incidents (if you ignore the snaped paddle and broken thigh brace) and by the time the water was, abruptly, shut off everyone was feeling fairly confident for the race on Sunday.
After a lovely dinner, and at least some sleep in our budget motel Sunday arrived like a slap in the face. Forever temperamental, we discovered the trailer lights we once again on the fritz. We’d dealt with finickety lights before but the thought of finding spare parts on a Sunday in France had me questioning whether we’d manage to make it home that evening.
Meanwhile those who’d made it to the Sunday morning practice discovered there was slightly more water than the Saturday. The change was subtle, but important, leading to a fair few swims from all competitors, and some fun backwards time for Kerry in the C1. The biggest change was at the corner, where suddenly there was a lot more water pushing a lot harder right, onto a bollard.
One of our junior girls discovered this the hard way getting swept onto said bollard, and neatly wrapping her boat around it, bringing a premature end to the practice and much amusement to the french paddlers.
As soon as the boat was removed racing commenced and I came perilously close to repeating the same mistake. On my first race run I discovered the increase flow as I was suddenly swept way off line, missing a drop completely and flying over some omniflots. Fortunately by the time of my 2nd K1 run I’d learnt my lesson and managed to keep mostly on line with what was probably my best sprint result in a long time.
Meanwhile the C2s were a story unto themselves. In the UK the C2 is a much neglected discipline. Or at least it has been, as we are currently trying to rectify this. Part of our mighty plot to become the greatest C2 nation on earth was to enter as many C2s into this ECA cup as possible. Naturally, most of these were scratch pairings with the race being the first time we’d paddled together. I entered with Scotland’s own Ryan Mallon and we found that we could move the boat quite well on the flat, although going down the rough was a slightly different matter. With the boat only having the left hip blocks we bravely survived our one and only practice run, deciding to leave it on a high and start the race with a largely unjustified level of confidence. The plan was simple go full speed, “full send” and hope the river took us to the right place. This worked well up until the point that my deck popped, but we continued powering on regardless, surviving yet another run. The other C2s had mixed results with Zach and Tom ramming the wall and an unexpected swim from Nicky and Freddy. Meanwhile Jacob and Rob managed to make the podium with a 3rd place (try-hards!). Naturally the girls did a much better job than the boys bagging 1st and 2nd places. More impressively Ryan and I managed to keep our decks on for the whole of the 2nd run and only went straight over a few omniflots. Despite not having the most impressive time on the books, when we crossed the finish line we were both giggling like little girls. The C2 is probably the most fun I’ve had on the water in ages and if you’re not giving it a go you are missing out!
Between the mayhem of racing we managed to bodge a fix for the trailer lights (thanks Zach & Dawn) and as the dust settled and we made our way home, we reflected on a very successful day of racing. There were more than a few stand out results (listed below) but even for those of us that didn’t make the podium the weekend delivered a great learning experience and a shed load of fun.
Soon we will be hosting our own ECA cup in my home of Nottingham. Entries are open to all and for anyone travelling from a far give me a shout and we can help out with accommodation and lend out boats etc.
Unfortunately though it seems I left my paddles in France. So if anyone finds please could you bring them with you!
Happy Racing!
British Podiums from the weekend:
- C1W Molly 1st, Kerry 3rd
- Masters C1M Nicky 1st
- U21 C1M Ryan Mallon 1st
- WC2 Kerry/Emma 1st, Laura/Iona 2nd
- MC2 Jacob/Rob 3rd
- WK1 Laura Milne 1st
- U18 WK1 Iona Patrick 1st
- U21 WK1 Molly 1st, Kerry 2nd
River Stench 